It was with the deepest sadness and disappointment that I read about Dr. Mouridian's biased and incorrect version of the tragic events during World War I, involving both Armenians and Turks, in Friday's Daily.
We all know that history is full of tragic events. However, it is maybe even more tragic to see that even today some individuals and groups will not rest until they breed new hatreds, based on distortions of history and lies, and then fuel them as much as they can.
I have spoken to people, among them to my late great-grandmother, who had lived through those days, and what they all said was the same: 'During the World War I, the Turkish population in Eastern Turkey was stabbed in the back; every Turkish family in that region lost dear members in atrocities committed against them; then, deportation came and both sides suffered; it was a very hard, very sad time.' Not only is all this supported by the Ottoman archive records, but has also been confirmed by many unbiased Western, among them also American, historic and contemporary sources. What better proof could be there that there was no genocide than the fact that no Armenians in other parts of the country were hurt in any way? Like many innocent Turkish lives, were also innocent Armenian lives lost under war conditions? Most probably; but, however terrible that may be, when were innocent lives not lost during wars?
I wonder if people who disseminate or support a one-sided, aggressive propaganda, full of lies, are aware of the fact that, as a result of similar campaigns, tens of Turkish diplomats, some of our finest, most humanitarian, and idealistic people, were killed in terrorist attacks in the 1970s? Do they know how much over 100 diplomat families have grieved only in the last 30 years because of that?
One of my mother's closest friends is Armenian. My brother and I call her 'Aunt' and her husband 'Uncle', and her sons write to my mother in Turkish, signing 'your nephew.'
I hope that, at least in international universities, people will manage to give a chance to feelings of respect, and friendship, and, if at all possible, to love, rather than to prejudice and hatred. After all, what is education all about? What I would like to add is that nothing and nobody can break the ties that bond Armenian and Turkish friends whose numbers are not few.
Kerem Koz '02
